Mike Grell on Bond 22
Cinematical had a good piece a short while ago about the script for Bond 22, the sequel to Casino Royale. We know that it will be a direct sequel to the film, and that screenwriters Neal Purvis and Robert Wade are reportedly basing their script on four of Ian Fleming’s short stories: The Hildebrand Rarity, The Property Of A Lady, Risico, and 007 In New York. Writer Patrick Walsh mentions in his piece, "I’m not a Bond expert, but some online research revealed that bits and pieces from these stories have made it into previous Bond films already."
Luckily for us, we happen to have a Bond expert handy — Mike Grell, creator of Jon Sable Freelance, Warlord, and the James Bond miniseries Permission To Die. How much of an expert? He actually drew Bond to look like Hoagy Carmichael. Take it away, Mike:
"Ian Fleming wrote 12 James Bond novels and 8 short stories, which Hollywood — so far — has turned into 21 Bond films without even touching some of the Fleming stories. Indeed, some of the adaptations (Moonraker and The Spy Who Loved Me, for instance) have borne precious little resemblance to the source material, while others have combined elements of several of Fleming’s short stories with the screenwriter’s own take on what a Bond movie should be.
Neal Purvis and Robert Wade face an interesting challenge in combining elements of The Property Of A Lady, Risico, 007 In New York, and The Hildebrand Rarity into a cohesive story. Apart from the obvious difficulty in following up the most successful film in the franchise’s history, the chief problem is that several of the main plot points have already been used in other Bond films: the auction of the Faberge Egg featured in Property Of A Lady was used in the film version of Octopussy; Bond’s alliance with Enrico Colombo and their attack on Kristatos’s drug warhouse, as featured in Risico, were used in For Your Eyes Only; Milton Krest, the sadistic husband from The Hildebrand Rarity, became the adversary in License To Kill; and in 007 In New York, Bond’s lady friend who works at Abercrombie’s is named Solange, the same name given to Dimitrios’s wife in Purvis and Wade’s Casino Royale.
There are certainly enough unexplored plot elements within these four stories to create an interesting storyline for Bond 22. I expect it to be a strongly character-driven action story with a direct tie-in to Casino Royale, carrying on another Fleming tradition of including certain elements and characters (usually a woman — possibly Solange?) from the previous story.
What sort of Mulligan stew you get from so many different ingredients depends entirely on the talent of the chefs. In the case of Neal Purvis and Robert Wade, you can bet it will be very, very tasty."
Yeah, but what about a possible plot? "If you’re asking me to do my version of a plot, you have to pay me." Fine, we’ll keep you busy working on other things and wait until November 7, 2008 like everybody else.
As for what Mr. Grell’s been up to, well, he’s been busy writing and drawing the next Jon Sable Freelance epic.